# St. John's United Church of Christ — October 11, 2026 *Access Sunday · Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost* ## Liturgical Context ### Christian Liturgical Calendar - **Season:** Season after Pentecost (Ordinary Time) - **Sunday:** Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost — Proper 23 - **Lectionary year:** Year A (Matthew), which began Advent 1, November 30, 2025 - **Color:** Green - **Special observance:** Access Sunday — UCC Disabilities Ministry resources (2026) - **Also this month:** Pastor Appreciation Month (St. John's celebration set for October 18) ### Jewish Calendar - **Hebrew date:** 30 Tishrei 5787 (Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan, day 1) - **Context:** The fall High Holy Day cycle just closed — Rosh Hashanah (Sept 12), Yom Kippur (Sept 21), Sukkot (Sept 26–Oct 2), Simchat Torah (Oct 4) - **Torah cycle:** Bereshit read Shabbat, October 10; Noach comes next (October 17) - **Note:** Cheshvan is the one month with no festivals — a "plain" month after a crowded one ### Ecumenical & Global Observances - National Disability Employment Awareness Month (October) - National Coming Out Day (October 11) — same day as the Franklin County Pride Festival at Wilson College - International Day of the Girl Child (October 11) - World Mental Health Day (October 10) - Indigenous Peoples' Day (October 12) - World Food Day (October 16) and International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (October 17) — bookend the CROP Hunger Walk ### Lectionary Readings (Revised Common Lectionary) Proper 23, Year A: - **Hebrew Bible (semicontinuous):** Exodus 32:1-14 · Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23 - **Hebrew Bible (complementary):** Isaiah 25:1-9 · Psalm 23 - **Epistle:** Philippians 4:1-9 - **Gospel:** Matthew 22:1-14 ← *read today* **Narrative Lectionary note:** The project's NL files cover 2025–26 (Year 4, John) and end May 24, 2026. Today falls in NL 2026–27 (Year 1), which they don't cover. ### Connection to Today's Message - **Psalm 23 surfaces twice.** It's the complementary psalm for Proper 23, and the Call to Worship opens with it ("The Divine is our Shepherd…"). - **Isaiah 25:6-9 pairs with the gospel.** Both feature a feast God throws for "all peoples." - **Matthew vs. Luke on the banquet.** Luke's parallel ([[Luke 14#21]]) names "the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame" as the invited. Matthew says "both good and bad" (NRSVue). Worth noting which version an Access Sunday service chose — and why. - **The wedding garment (vv. 11-14).** A guest gets thrown out for wrong attire. On a Sunday about access, that ending creates real tension. Watch how (or whether) the service addresses it. - **Liturgy theme:** wholeness, not deficit — "The Divine always calls us whole." ## Order of Worship *\*Please stand in body or in spirit* - **Recording:** [Sunday, October 11th 2026 (YouTube)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs). Pre-service chatter from [00:24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=24s); worship begins at [10:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=635s); the Time of Testimony runs [41:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=2480s)–[53:56](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=3236s); the video ends in postlude music near [1:15:30]. - **About the timestamps:** the transcript marks the start of each 20–60 second caption block, so a heading's time is the block where that item begins. Items that share a block share a time. Music-only blocks show as "[music]" with no words, so the hymn, anthem and offertory times are least exact. ### Gathering #### Gathering Song — [09:27](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=567s) "This is the Day" #### Unison Welcome — [10:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=635s) "No matter who you are or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here" #### Connections — [11:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=674s) #### Passing of the Peace — [14:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=872s) **Leader:** The peace of Christ be with you **People:** And also with you #### Chiming of the Trinity — [16:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=992s) #### Prelude — [16:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=992s) <!-- Chiming and prelude share one caption block (music and bells interleaved). --> #### \*Call to Worship — [19:33](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=1173s) The pastor's greeting ("What a wonderful way to begin our worship this day on this Access Sunday") is at [18:13](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=1093s); the invocation ("in the name of God, creator, Christ, and Holy Spirit") opens the [19:33](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=1173s) block. *Written by Pastor Greg Tre Harris* **Leader:** The Divine is our Shepherd. We want not. Not missing anything. Nothing holy, forgotten, or left out. **People:** Created in love, We are one! **Leader:** The world names us by what it believes we lack. The Divine always calls us whole. Our bodies, our minds, our spirits, created without hesitation, held without condition, beloved without exception. **People:** Created differently, We are one! **Leader:** One Band. One Body. Many members. One Sound. One Song. Many voices. One Truth. One Spirit. Many stories. No life stands alone. No gift exists apart from another. **People:** Created creatively, We are one! **Leader:** We are seen through the eyes of our neighbors. We are strengthened by one another's veracity. We are healed through interconnected compassion. What the world calls weakness, The Divine transforms into common union. **People:** Our reality does not diminish. It binds us together, reveals Christ among us, and becomes the very place where grace is made known. Our collective vulnerability saves us all! Created in oneness, We are one! Scripture echoes: [[Psalms 23#1]] · [[1 Corinthians 12#12]] #### \*Hymn #562 (insert) — [21:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=1274s) "Take My Gifts" - **Words:** Shirley Erena Murray, 1991 - **Music:** Colin Gibson, 1991 - **Tune:** TALAVERA TERRACE 8.7.8.7.D (alternate tune: HOLY MANNA) - **Section:** Stewardship and Creation - **Copyright:** © 1992 Hope Publishing Company — lyrics not reproduced; see the insert or hymnal - **Hymnal note:** Murray said Gibson wrote the tune for her stewardship text almost on the spot. Gibson taught at the University of Otago and served as organist and choir director in Dunedin, New Zealand. #### \*Opening Prayer — [24:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=1443s) *Written by Pastor Greg Tre Harris (unison)* Holy Divine, everything we need, at birth we have. Each gift. Each story. Each body. Each way of moving through the world. Nothing lost. Nothing missing. Nothing wrong. Nothing without purpose. Designed with divinity in mind. When the world teaches us otherwise, remind us that You have always called us whole. Our aches and pains are not evidence that Love abandoned us. They are reminders that we live, that we love and are loved, that Ruach is precious, and that the Divine has remained by our side through it all. Our pain is our proof. As we gather in worship, help us recognize one another's abilities and disabilities, honor one another's truths and identities, and discover Your presence within our shared humanity. May we remember that what the world often overlooks, You have always called beloved. May our worship reveal Christ among us, Your grace be made known through us, and our collective vulnerability become a testimony to Your abiding love. Amen. ### Word #### Scripture Reading — [25:39](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=1539s) Matthew 22:1-14 — Lector: Holli Burton. Announced at [25:39](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=1539s); the reading itself runs [26:39](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=1599s)–[28:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=1690s). *Full embeds under Scripture and Sermon.* #### Anthem — [28:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=1690s) "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" — arr. Gilbert M. Martin - **Words:** Thomas O. Chisholm, 1923 - **Music:** William M. Runyan, 1923 (tune: FAITHFULNESS) - **Copyright:** © 1923, renewed 1951, Hope Publishing Company — lyrics not reproduced - **Scripture basis:** [[Lamentations 3#22]] · [[Lamentations 3#23]] #### Children's Message — [30:43](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=1843s) Roxanne Davenport Children come forward at [30:43](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=1843s); the closing prayer and Children's Corner dismissal land at [40:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=2422s). *Children's Corner offered following the Children's Message (MaryLee Yaukey)* ##### Children's Message Notes > [!info] Source > Auto-transcript of the live recording (about 8 minutes). The speaker is not named on the tape; the bulletin lists Roxanne Davenport. The same person gave the Time of Testimony (she refers back to "the exercise I just talked about with the youth"), so read this section with the Testimony Notes. Garbled lines are flagged below for verification against the video before quoting. Times in parentheses (m:ss) belong to that earlier clip; the ▶ links are video times from the YouTube transcript and are accurate to its caption blocks. ###### 🧒 What Happened - **Opening hook (0:40–1:14):** ▶ [32:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=1932s) The leader began in sign language without speaking. When the children couldn't respond, she revealed she had signed "good morning," then named the point: communicating is hard when you don't share a language. She admitted she hasn't signed in years herself. - **Blindfold (1:32–3:04):** ▶ [33:54](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=2034s) A volunteer was blindfolded and asked to move a step; the leader asked whether the children could find their way to the kitchen, or find a friend, without sight in a building they know well, then in a place they don't. - **Wheelchair (3:04–3:39):** ▶ [35:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=2125s) A wheelchair exercise framed around shopping: "not that hard unless you have to do it for a couple of hours uphill." - **Dyslexia text (3:44–4:53):** ▶ [36:06](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=2166s) A child read a distorted text aloud; the adults were invited to try once it reached the screen. "This might be what a dyslexic" person sees. - **Turn (4:53–6:18):** ▶ [37:28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=2248s) "We can't begin to understand what it's like," because we can take the blindfold off or stand up; "people with disabilities can't." Named Access Sunday; "at any time, any of us can become disabled"; "Maybe someone here has a disability." - **Charge and prayer (6:18–7:56):** ▶ [38:52](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=2332s) Be aware, empathize, and be ready to serve, "because that's what Jesus taught us"; people need to be "recognized for who they are… and their talents." Closing prayer asked God to help us "look for others in need… that we may serve them, that we may walk beside them on your path." > [!warning] Verify on video before quoting > - 1:55 "And she calls you Meanie" and 2:20 "go find Winnie" — likely a child's name; unclear. > - 3:12 "stand on the wheelchair the whole time" — almost certainly "sit in the wheelchair." > - 7:02 "I hope nobody ever faces this kind of disability" is tagged Speaker 2; probably the leader. > - 7:19 "It's not an answer word" — unrecoverable from the transcript. > - 4:14 the screen did not display the text at first ("It's his fault"), a live media glitch. ###### 📋 Rubric Observations (non-scored companion) **Summary:** Central message: disability is hard to imagine, can happen to anyone, and calls for awareness, empathy, and service. Ties to Access Sunday clearly; no tie to Matthew 22 or Psalm 23, though the Gospel had just been read. **Style:** Inductive and experiential. Problem first (you can't understand me), conclusion last (so empathize and serve). Well suited to children. **Storytelling and illustration:** No story; four sensory simulations instead (deaf, blind, wheelchair user, dyslexic). Covers four disability types, three of them sensory or physical. No disabled person's own voice, story, or name appears. **Delivery:** Warm, improvisational, humorous about the screen glitch. Honest self-disclosure about rusty signing models humility. **Structure:** Clear: hook, three demonstrations, turn, application, prayer. The dyslexia segment lost momentum during the media delay. **Engagement:** Strong. Children participated bodily; adults were pulled in ("get your glasses"). This was the most interactive element of the service. **Scripture handling:** None. "That's what Jesus taught us" appeals to Jesus without a text. Luke 14:21 (the poor, crippled, blind, and lame invited to the banquet) or Matthew 22:9 ("invite everyone you find") would have connected the lesson to the reading. **Logical reasoning:** - ✅ **Self-correcting:** After the simulations, the leader said "we can't begin to understand what it's like." That sentence undercuts the hasty generalization the exercises invite. - ⚠️ **Hasty generalization / false equivalence:** two minutes blindfolded is presented as a window into blindness. Lived disability includes adaptation, skill, and community that a simulation cannot show. - ⚠️ **Appeal to emotion (pity):** "challenges… that we are blessed to not have" frames disability as misfortune and nondisability as blessing. - ⚠️ **Implied false dilemma:** helpers ("us") and helped ("people with disabilities") are separate groups, though she also said "maybe someone here has a disability." **References:** None. The UCC Access Sunday resources behind the rest of the liturgy are not visible in the message. **Quotes worth keeping:** - "At any time, any of us can become disabled." - "Maybe someone here has a disability." - People need "to at least be recognized for who they are… and their talents." **Calls to action:** Awareness, empathy, service, and walking "beside them." Spoken only; no take-home action for the children. **Style effectiveness:** Effective at attention and empathy; weaker at agency. A version built around a disabled person's own story, or around the children noticing barriers in their own church, would serve the same learning styles while making disabled people actors rather than recipients. ###### ⚠️ Disability Theology Check - **Simulations in research.** A study of blindness simulations (Arielle Silverman, Jason Gwinn, and Leaf Van Boven, *Social Psychological and Personality Science*, 2015) found that participants who wore blindfolds afterward rated blind people as *less* capable of working and living independently. Simulations tend to teach the shock of sudden loss, not the experience of living blind. The leader named that limit herself, here ("we can at any time take the blindfold off") and at length in the testimony, where these exercises turn out to be the ones from her own college training. - **Medical vs. social model.** The message locates the problem in bodies ("people with disabilities can't"). The social model, named by Mike Oliver in the 1980s from British disability activism of the 1970s, locates it in barriers. The children were never asked what in this building makes it hard. - **Language.** The message uses person-first language ("people with disabilities"). The Prayer of Dedication uses "our disabled siblings." Both are in use; the shift within one service is worth noticing. ###### 🔗 Formation Pipeline: Children's vs. Adult Liturgy The children and the adults heard different theologies of disability in the same hour. | Theme | Adult liturgy | Children's message | | ----- | ------------- | ------------------ | | Disability as | Wholeness: "Nothing missing. Nothing wrong." (Opening Prayer) | Difficulty and misfortune: "blessed to not have" | | Disabled people as | Givers: "celebrate the gifts of our disabled siblings" (Prayer of Dedication) | Recipients: "be ready to serve" | | Relationship | Partners: "Called as Partners," "collective vulnerability saves us all" | Helpers and helped, softened by "walk beside them" | | Where the problem lives | Barriers: "spaces at those tables are accessible to ALL" (Benediction) | Bodies: "people with disabilities can't" | **Bridge already present:** "Recognized for who they are… and their talents," "walk beside them," and "maybe someone here has a disability" all point toward the adult liturgy's model. The message got there at the end; the simulations pulled the other way. ###### 🧬 Hermeneutical Genealogy - **Disability as misfortune met by charity** has a long Christian pedigree: almsgiving, asylums, and nineteenth-century benevolent institutions that cared for disabled people while keeping them apart. "Blessed to not have" inherits that frame. - **Simulation exercises** come from late-twentieth-century disability-awareness curricula in schools and workplaces, and they have moved into children's ministry largely unexamined. - **The adult liturgy draws on a newer line:** the social model, disability rights activism, and disability theology such as Nancy Eiesland's *The Disabled God* (1994). The UCC Access Sunday resources come from that line. - **For the student:** when a lesson says "we are blessed" to be able-bodied, ask which tradition taught that health equals blessing. ###### 🔁 Lateral Transfer & Referent Inversion Check - **Lateral transfer:** Low risk overall. "Blessed to not have" echoes health-as-blessing language common in Charismatic healing theology; worth noticing, since the same framework can survive in a progressive setting under gentler words. - **Referent inversion:** Not present. The call to serve is aimed at the able-bodied majority, where it belongs. - **UCC grounding:** "Testimonies not tests" fits a lesson that says "we can't begin to understand." The stronger UCC move would be to let a disabled member testify. ###### 🧪 Applications - [ ] Suggest to the Children's Message leader a barrier walk of the building next Access Sunday, alongside or instead of simulations. - [ ] Share the Silverman, Gwinn & Van Boven (2015) finding with the worship team, framed as a resource rather than a correction. - [ ] Connect the children's message to the Gospel next year: Luke 14:21 and Matthew 22:9 fit Access Sunday directly. #### Time of Testimony — [40:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=2422s) Prayer from the pulpit at [40:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=2422s); the testimony itself begins at [41:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=2480s) ("When Pastor Caroline asked me…") and ends at [52:52](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=3172s) with "Amen. Amen." *No sermon is listed in today's bulletin; the Time of Testimony holds that slot.* ##### Testimony Notes > [!info] Source > Auto-transcript of the live recording (about 13 minutes). The speaker is not named on the tape. She says Pastor Caroline asked her to preach, that she taught special education for 35 years, and that she led "the exercise… with the youth," so she also gave the Children's Message. The bulletin lists Roxanne Davenport for the Children's Message; confirm the preacher's name before citing. Times in parentheses (m:ss) belong to that earlier clip; the ▶ links are video times from the YouTube transcript. ###### 🗣️ What Was Said - **Opening prayer (0:10):** ▶ [40:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=2422s) an adaptation of Psalm 19:14, ending "our rock and our refuge" (the psalm reads "rock and redeemer"). - **Credentials (0:25–1:04):** ▶ [41:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=2480s) 35 years as a special education teacher, a short time teaching college; "the learning was just beginning" after graduation. - **Her own simulations (1:04–2:14):** ▶ [41:48](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=2508s) in college she spent a day blindfolded, ordered at McDonald's in sign language ("it was interesting the food we got"), and spent a day in a wheelchair on a hilly campus without door push pads. She left "thinking I had a good grip," then realized "I could remove the barriers anytime… I was not permanently disabled." This is the payoff of the children's message. - **Families taught her (2:14–3:36):** ▶ [42:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=2573s) parent conferences about schedules, behaviors, sibling concerns, and caregiver strain "made me realize how little I understood." Families had heard only "lists of what their child couldn't do," rarely their strengths. That changed her mindset for the rest of her career. - **Quote (3:36):** ▶ [44:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=2663s) attributed to Richard M. Cohen: focusing on someone's disability makes you overlook "their abilities, beauty, and uniqueness." - **A former student's story (4:08–5:56):** ▶ [45:01](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=2701s) born in Guatemala without arms or legs, caged in early childhood, abused in a U.S. foster home, then adopted locally. In her class she gained language, toilet training, wheelchair speed, grade-level academics, computer access, and object carrying with shoulder and chin; she entered regular kindergarten, graduated high school, and is "a contributing member of society today." Her strengths: disposition, problem solving, determination. - **Universal limits (5:56–7:29):** ▶ [46:49](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=2809s) "handi-capable" (1990s); everyone struggles with something; learning styles; "Ability and disability exist on a spectrum, not a simple dividing line." Quote attributed to Martina Navratilova: "Disability is a matter of perception. If you can do just one thing well, you are needed by someone." "We all need to be needed." - **Matthew 22 (7:29–8:55):** ▶ [48:04](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=2884s) the king is God, the son is Jesus, and "we are invited"; the refusers are "the religious leaders and their students"; the street guests show "the gospel is for the Gentiles and the marginalized"; the garment means "clothe ourselves in God," a grace that "requires true, inward acceptance," and "thus" teaches the inclusion of marginalized and disabled people. - **Access audit of St. John's (8:55–11:16):** ▶ [49:47](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=2987s) curb-free parking lot, door push plates, accessible and family-friendly bathrooms, gender-neutral bathrooms, hearing devices, sound panels ready to install, readable fonts on screens and print, chairs with armrests, large-print bulletins, livestreamed worship. "More planned as funds allow… I have some ideas on that too." - **"Now comes the harder work" (11:16–12:14):** ▶ [52:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=3129s) as an Open and Affirming congregation, accept, advocate for, and affirm all marginalized people, "regardless of age, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, economic level, mental health, and ability," including them in "activities, decisions, planning, and implementation." - **Close (12:14–12:55):** ▶ [52:52](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=3172s) not only building access and "extravagant welcome," but "our covenant as partners in ministry to all"; "As the body of Christ… we are one. The gifts that we bring." > [!warning] Verify on video before quoting > - 5:06 "Driving a Lincoln wheelchair" — likely a brand or model name the transcript misheard. > - 6:56, 7:20, 11:42 — Speaker 2 lines ("Not a simple dividing line," "Think about it," "And ability") are almost certainly the preacher; the transcript split her sentences. > - 12:14–12:52 — a 38-second gap with no transcript; check whether something was said or sung. > - Both quotes (Cohen, Navratilova) are attributed from the pulpit; confirm the sources before reusing them. ###### 📊 Sermon Analysis Rubric (scored) **Sermon Summary — 4/5.** Central message: disabled people are whole people with gifts, invited to the feast, and the church must move from removing physical barriers to sharing power. Clearly tied to Access Sunday and explicitly to Matthew 22. Personal and communal. **Preaching Style — 4/5.** Testimonial (first-person) blended with topical and a short textual section. A good fit: her 35 years are the authority the congregation will trust, and she uses them to admit what she got wrong. **Storytelling and Illustration — 3/5.** Vivid and memorable: the McDonald's order, the hill without push pads, the student who "learned to roll faster than I could walk." Two concerns keep this from a 4. The student's story shares abuse details about a real, identifiable former student in a livestreamed service, with no mention of consent. And it follows the overcoming arc that ends in "a contributing member of society," which Stella Young called "inspiration porn": disabled lives presented to motivate nondisabled listeners. No disabled person speaks for themselves. **Intonation and Delivery — 3/5 (provisional).** Cannot be judged fully from a transcript. Rhetorical questions ("Is that not awesome?") and a pause for "Think about it" suggest a conversational, warm delivery. Score after watching the video. **Content Structure — 4/5.** A clear arc: credibility, what she learned, a story, the universal turn, the text, the building audit, "now comes the harder work," close. The scripture section arrives late and short, and "What about our ministries?" is an abrupt transition. **Engagement and Application — 4/5.** Concrete and local: she named specific changes in this building and pointed to decision-making as the next frontier. ONA categories named explicitly, including gender identity and mental health. Little interaction beyond rhetorical questions. **Scripture Handling — 2/5.** One passage, about 90 seconds. A wedding as an "intimate union… shared with those most close" projects a modern wedding onto a multi-day public feast. The king's violence (v. 7) and the outer darkness (v. 13) are skipped. The leap from the garment to "Thus… the intentional inclusion of marginalized and disabled individuals" does not follow from the garment story; Luke 14:21 makes that point, and Matthew does not. **Logical Reasoning — 3/5.** Strong inductive reasoning from experience, and an honest correction of her own earlier certainty. Lapses noted below. **References — 2/5.** Two secular quotes (Cohen, who lives with multiple sclerosis, and Navratilova), both unverified attributions. No theologians, no disability theology, and the UCC Access Sunday resources are named but not drawn on. **Quotes and Illustrative Stories — 4/5.** "I could remove the barriers anytime I needed to." "Many of these families had only ever heard lists of what their child couldn't do." "Now comes the harder work." Each ties directly to the congregation's life. **Calls to Action — 3/5.** The strongest call is systemic: include marginalized people in "decisions, planning, and implementation." It stays general: no named next step, no invitation to share her "ideas," spoken only. **Style Effectiveness — 4/5.** Testimony was the right choice; it lets a nondisabled expert model learning in public. It most served auditory and interpersonal learners. A blend that put one disabled member's voice alongside hers, and spent three more minutes in the text, would strengthen it most. **Total: 40/60.** > [!note] Rubric math > The template lists 12 scored sections but states "13 sections × 5 = 65." This note scores the 12 that exist, out of 60. Check whether a 13th category was dropped from the skill. ###### 🧠 Logical Reasoning Detail - ✅ **Inductive reasoning from experience:** college simulations → parent conferences → "how little I understood." Her own conclusion corrects the children's-message exercises: simulations can be removed; disability cannot. - ✅ **Self-correction:** she names her earlier overconfidence ("I had a good grip"), which models intellectual humility. - ⚠️ **Non sequitur (8:34–8:55) ▶ [49:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=2950s):** "clothe ourselves in God… true, inward acceptance. Thus, teaching us the intentional inclusion of marginalized and disabled individuals." The conclusion is right for Access Sunday, but the garment passage doesn't support it. *Fix:* cite Luke 14:21 or Matthew 22:9–10 ("invite everyone you find… good and bad") for inclusion; keep the garment for inward response. This is the "right conclusion, laundered evidence" pattern: the conclusion stands, the evidence needs correcting. - ⚠️ **Cherry picking:** vv. 7 and 11–13's expulsion are skipped, so the tension the text raises on an access Sunday goes unaddressed. - ⚠️ **False equivalence (5:56–7:12) ▶ [46:49](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=2809s):** struggling with math or a new language is placed on one spectrum with being born without limbs. The spectrum idea is sound; the equivalence flattens the difference in barriers, discrimination, and cost. *Fix:* "We all have limits, but not all limits meet locked doors." - ⚠️ **Appeal to usefulness:** "a contributing member of society," "a productive part of the family," and "If you can do just one thing well, you are needed by someone" tie worth to contribution. The Opening Prayer said the opposite: "Nothing without purpose… Nothing wrong." - ⚠️ **Euphemism (5:56):** "handi-capable" is rejected by many disabled advocates, who prefer "disabled" (as the Prayer of Dedication says: "our disabled siblings"). - ⚠️ **Presentism:** an "intimate" wedding for close friends projects modern practice onto an ancient public feast. ###### ⚖️ Side-by-Side: This Sermon vs. a Fully Exegetical Version | Aspect | This Sermon's Style | Fully Exegetical Version | | ------ | ------------------- | ------------------------ | | Primary style | Testimony + topical, short textual section | Textual, verse by verse, with Luke 14 alongside | | Stories | Her college simulations; one former student | The Shabbat 153a parallel; 1QSa's exclusion of disabled bodies from the messianic meal | | Scripture depth | About 90 seconds; violence and expulsion skipped | Vv. 7 and 11–13 faced directly; garment as response, not body | | Application | Building audit, then shared decision-making | Same applications, grounded in v. 9 and Luke 14:21 rather than the garment | ###### 🧬 Hermeneutical Genealogy - **Strengths-based special education:** the shift from deficit lists to strengths reflects decades of special education reform after the 1975 federal law guaranteeing disabled children a public education. Her career sits inside that history. - **"Handi-capable" and productivity language:** come from the rehabilitation model, which measures success by independence and employment. They challenge pity but keep usefulness as the measure of worth. - **"The gospel is for the Gentiles":** the salvation-history reading of Matthew 22 (Antiochene and Reformation lines). She kept it focused on "religious leaders and their students," which avoids blaming the Jewish people. That is a careful choice. - **The garment as inward acceptance:** close to the Reformation reading (faith and grace received), not Augustine's love or Wesley's holiness. - **The closing move:** from access to shared power ("decisions, planning") reflects the disability rights principle "nothing about us without us." She does not name it, but her final call stands in that line. ###### 🔁 Lateral Transfer & Referent Inversion Check - **Referent inversion:** Not present. Every call is aimed at the congregation with power (building, budget, decisions), not at disabled people. - **Mild risk to watch:** "requires true, inward acceptance" puts a condition on the guest; on Access Sunday, keep that from becoming a test disabled people must pass to belong. - **Lateral transfer:** Low. The productivity frame ("contributing member," "needed by someone") is the main inherited framework; it is secular, not Charismatic, in origin. - **UCC grounding:** A strong fit with "testimonies not tests": she testified to what she learned and where she was wrong. ###### 🔗 Formation Pipeline: Children's Message ↔ Testimony - **The two messages were designed as a pair.** The children's message ran the simulations and named their limit ("we can at any time take the blindfold off"). The testimony told the story behind that lesson and then turned it toward strengths. - **The children left before the strengths reframe.** The bulletin shows Children's Corner began right after the Children's Message. The children heard "challenges… that we are blessed to not have" and "be ready to serve." They missed the adult message's correction of deficit thinking ("families had only ever heard lists of what their child couldn't do"), the student's abilities, and the call to share decisions. - **Next year:** end the children's message with one strength-based line from the testimony, such as "She learned to roll faster than I could walk," so the children leave with what disabled people *can* do, not only what is hard. ##### 📖 Bible Study: Matthew 22:1–14 — The Wedding Banquet 🏷️ Working title: **"Everyone Off the Street, and One Man Without a Robe"** 📌 Scope: A condensed run of the 6-phase method. Contemporary-voice rosters are replaced with one consolidated Schools of Thought overview. Translations compared: NRSVue (with the *Jewish Annotated New Testament* notes, cited as JANT), AMP, NASB1995, CJB, TOJB2011, TPT, FNV, and NMV. IB and MSG were not supplied. Check Greek forms and Strong's numbers in STEP before relying on them. ###### 🙏 Phase 1: Preliminary Engagement 🕯️ Prayer for insight: _"Host of the feast, open my ears to the invitation and my eyes to the guests beside me."_ 📚 Reading plan: Read Matthew 22:1–14 next to Luke 14:15–24 and Gospel of Thomas 64. Then read the full temple-controversy sequence (Matthew 21:23–22:14) in one sitting. 🧰 Study helps: [STEP Bible](https://www.stepbible.org/), [NET Bible](https://netbible.org/bible/Matthew+22), [Blue Letter Bible](https://blueletterbible.org/), [Sefaria](https://www.sefaria.org/Shabbat.153a) for the rabbinic parallel. 🔎 Key verses: - v. 2: a king gives a wedding feast for his son - vv. 5–6: excuses, then insult and murder - v. 7: troops, destruction, a burned city - vv. 9–10: everyone in the streets, "both bad and good" - vv. 11–12: the guest without a wedding garment, addressed as "Friend" - v. 14: "many are called, but few are chosen" **🔤 Key Greek Terms** | Greek | Transliteration | Strong's | Verse(s) | Simple gloss | Scriptural usage | | ----- | --------------- | -------- | -------- | ------------ | ---------------- | | γάμος | gamos | G1062 | 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10 (variant), 11, 12 | wedding; wedding feast | Plural γάμοι means multi-day wedding festivities (compare the seven-day feast in Judges 14:12). Also Matthew 25:10 | | καλέω / κλητός | kaleō / klētos | G2564 / G2822 | 3, 4, 8, 9, 14 | call; invite / the invited | The same root names the first guests (κεκλημένοι) and the closing verdict (κλητοί) | | ἀμελέω | ameleō | G272 | 5 | disregard; treat as unimportant | Not hostility, indifference. Hebrews 2:3; 1 Timothy 4:14 | | ὑβρίζω | hybrizō | G5195 | 6 | insult; treat shamefully | An honor-shame word. Luke 18:32 and Acts 14:5 use it of abuse before violence | | διέξοδος | diexodos | G1327 | 9 | where roads exit the city; crossroads | NT hapax. The edges of town, not the main square | | ἔνδυμα | endyma | G1742 | 11, 12 | garment; clothing | Matthew uses it for John's camel hair (3:4), wolves in "sheep's clothing" (7:15), and the angel's raiment (28:3) | | ἑταῖρος | hetairos | G2083 | 12 | friend; comrade | Only in Matthew: the vineyard owner to the grumbler (20:13), here, and Jesus to Judas (26:50). Every use addresses someone in the wrong | | φιμόω | phimoō | G5392 | 12 | muzzle; silence | Same verb at 22:34, when Jesus "silenced" the Sadducees | | κλητοί / ἐκλεκτοί | klētoi / eklektoi | G2822 / G1588 | 14 | called / chosen | A Semitic many-few contrast (compare 4 Ezra 8:3) | > 🔧 **Free Tool Note:** Open Matthew 22:12 with Greek on, click ἑταῖρε, and run a lemma search; confirm the three Matthean uses (20:13; 22:12; 26:50). https://www.stepbible.org/?q=version=ESV|reference=Matt.22.12&options=HVGUN > 🔧 **Free Tool Note:** Click ἐφιμώθη in 22:12 and compare ἐφίμωσεν in 22:34 two paragraphs later. https://www.stepbible.org/?q=version=ESV|reference=Matt.22.34&options=HVGUN **📜 Textual Variants** - **v. 10, νυμφών vs. γάμος.** The critical text reads ὁ νυμφών, "the wedding hall was filled." Many later witnesses read ὁ γάμος, "the wedding was filled." The hall reading makes the space concrete: a room that fills to capacity. NRSVue, NASB1995, and CJB ("wedding hall") follow the critical text. NMV ("the marriage ceremony was filled") and TOJB2011 ("the chasunoh was filled") follow γάμος, and AMP brackets its way between them ("[the room in which] the wedding feast [was held]"). Check the NET note on v. 10 for the witnesses. - **20:16, "many called, few chosen."** The Textus Receptus adds this saying to the end of the vineyard-workers parable as well (KJV keeps it there). The critical text has it only at 22:14. Readers of the KJV hear the saying twice and may read 22:14 as a general rule rather than this parable's verdict. ###### 👀 Phase 2: Observational Analysis 🧭 Main themes: - The kingdom as a wedding feast the host insists on filling (vv. 2, 4, 8–10). - Refusal ranging from indifference (v. 5) to violence (v. 6). - Judgment on the refusers (v. 7) and on one accepted guest (vv. 11–13). - An open door with a standard at the table (vv. 10–12). 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Characters: the king; his son (named once, never seen); the first invited guests; two rounds of slaves (δοῦλοι, vv. 3, 4); the king's troops (v. 7); the street guests, "bad and good" (v. 10); the man without a garment (v. 11); attendants (διάκονοι, v. 13), a different word from the earlier slaves. 🧨 Events and movements: - Invitation, refusal, second invitation, contempt and murder (vv. 3–6). - Punitive war and a burned city while the meal waits (v. 7). - Open invitation, a full hall (vv. 9–10). - Inspection, silence, expulsion (vv. 11–13). - Closing saying (v. 14). 📜 Commands and promises: - Commands: "come to the wedding banquet" (v. 4); "go therefore… and invite everyone you find" (v. 9); "bind him… and throw him" (v. 13). - Promises: "everything is ready" (v. 4); "the wedding is ready" (v. 8). The meal is never cancelled. 🧩 5W1H scan: - Who: Jesus speaks to the chief priests and Pharisees (21:45), in the temple, after they question his authority (21:23). - What: the third of three parables (Two Sons, 21:28–32; Wicked Tenants, 21:33–46; Wedding Banquet). - Where: the temple courts in Jerusalem, during the last week. - When: just before the Pharisees plot to trap him (22:15). - Why: to answer the authority challenge by telling the leaders what their refusal means. - How: an allegory-leaning parable, heavier on allegory than its Lukan parallel. **🔁 Key-word chains (*Leitwörter*)** Verify each count by lemma in STEP; these are drawn from the Greek text, not from a supplied interlinear. - **"call / invite" – *kaleō* (καλέω, G2564), root-level:** - v. 3: "to call those who had been invited" (*καλέσαι τοὺς κεκλημένους*). - v. 4: "tell those who have been invited" (*τοῖς κεκλημένοις*). - v. 8: "those invited were not worthy" (*οἱ κεκλημένοι*). - v. 9: "invite everyone you find" (*καλέσατε*). - v. 14: "many are called" (*κλητοί*). - **Observation:** The participle κεκλημένοι marks the insiders who refused (vv. 3, 4, 8). Then the imperative opens the call to anyone found (v. 9). The closing κλητοί gathers both groups under one word: everyone in the story was called. - **"wedding" – *gamos* (γάμος, G1062):** - vv. 2, 3, 4, 9: the feast (*γάμους*). - v. 8: "the wedding is ready" (*ὁ γάμος*). - vv. 11, 12: "wedding garment" (*ἔνδυμα γάμου*). - **Observation:** The word moves from event to clothing. The feast is ready before anyone arrives; the garment is the one thing the guest brings. - **"slaves → attendants" – *doulos* (δοῦλος, G1401) to *diakonos* (διάκονος, G1249):** - vv. 3, 4, 6, 8, 10: δοῦλοι invite, suffer, and gather. - v. 13: διάκονοι bind and expel. - **Observation:** The inviters and the enforcers are different people. In Matthew the end-time sorting belongs to angels (13:41, 49), not to the ones sent out to invite. NASB1995 ("slaves" → "servants"), CJB ("slaves" → "servants"), NRSVue, and AMP ("attendants") keep the shift visible. FNV erases it: its chief calls "his warriors" in v. 13, the same word it used for the army in v. 7. **🔍 Translation Comparison** Eight translations, grouped by the verses where they diverge most. **v. 1, "parables"** - **TPT:** "As was his custom, Jesus continued to teach the people by using allegories." Two additions: "as was his custom," and "allegories" for παραβολαῖς, which settles the genre debate before the reader starts. - **TOJB2011:** "meshalim (parables)," the Hebrew term, tying Jesus' stories to the rabbinic *mashal*, the same form as the Shabbat 153a parable. **v. 2, the king and the kingdom** - **TOJB2011:** "like a man, a Melech (King)." The only translation here that keeps the Greek ἀνθρώπῳ βασιλεῖ, literally "a man, a king," the standard opening of a rabbinic king parable (*mashal l'melekh*). - **FNV:** "Creator's good road from above is like a chief." Kingdom becomes a road (a way of life), and the king becomes a chief, which removes the imperial frame Carter reads. - **TPT:** "an extravagant wedding feast." "Extravagant" is not in the Greek. **v. 4, the meal** - **TPT:** "Come to the wedding feast for my son and his bride!" No bride appears anywhere in the Greek parable. Adding one imports Revelation 19's Bride of Christ into the story. - **NMV:** "oxen and fowl"; **FNV:** "my best meat fresh from the herd." Both drop the "fattened" (σιτιστά) detail that marks a planned feast. **v. 5, the excuses** - **NRSVue:** "made light of it"; JANT notes this is an insult to the host. - **TOJB2011:** "treated it all as a mere trifle," the closest match to ἀμελέω's indifference. - **AMP:** "[they ignored and made light of the summons, treating it with contempt]," which expands one word into three attitudes. - **NMV:** "some into the city and some to their businesses." "City" replaces "farm" (ἀγρός, field), which flips the contrast from rural landowner to town. - **TPT:** reverses the order (business first, then "his farming enterprise"). **v. 7, the burned city** - **NRSVue, NASB1995, CJB, TOJB2011:** "city." - **FNV:** "their village"; **NMV:** "burnt their house with fire." Both shrink the city, which loosens the link to Jerusalem that JANT and most commentators see. - **JANT note:** reads v. 7 as the Romans' destruction of Jerusalem in the First Revolt (66–70 CE), citing Josephus, *Jewish War* 6.165–92. **v. 9, where the servants go** - **AMP:** "the thoroughfares where they leave the city [where the main roads and those from the country end]." The best rendering of διέξοδοι in this set, and the one that supports reading the street guests as people on the margins. - **NRSVue:** "main streets"; **NASB1995:** "main highways"; **CJB:** "street-corners"; **TOJB2011:** "intersections of the streets"; **TPT:** "streets and alleyways"; **FNV:** "village pathways"; **NMV:** "the roads." - **JANT note:** "Main streets, in public," which stresses visibility rather than margins. **v. 10, "bad and good"** - The Greek puts bad first (πονηρούς τε καὶ ἀγαθούς). **NASB1995** ("both evil and good"), **AMP** ("both bad and good"), **CJB** ("the bad along with the good"), and **TOJB2011** ("rah and tov") keep that order. - **NRSVue** ("both good and bad"), **NMV** ("good and bad"), and **TPT** ("good and bad alike") reverse it, which softens Matthew's emphasis. - **FNV:** "honorable or bad-hearted," which turns a moral pair into honor language. - **TPT:** "crammed with people!" and, in v. 11, the king "looked with glee," both additions. **vv. 11–12, the garment** - **TPT:** "the wedding robe provided for him." **FNV:** "the proper regalia that was provided for the guests," and in v. 12, "Why have you dishonored my son by not wearing the outfit provided for you?" - Both translations write the host-provided-robe custom into the text, the custom Luz and Davies and Allison find poorly attested. The Greek says only that he was not wearing a wedding garment. FNV's added question also supplies a motive (dishonoring the son) that the text leaves open. - **CJB:** "wasn't dressed for a wedding"; **TOJB2011:** "lacking the attire proper for the chasunoh," both neutral. - **NMV** and **AMP** (v. 12): "without putting on the [appropriate] wedding garment," where AMP's bracket implies the man could have put one on. - **JANT note:** the robe represents righteous deeds, citing Galatians 3:27 and Revelation 3:4–5, 18; 19:8. **v. 12, "Friend" and silence** - **TOJB2011:** "Chaver," the Hebrew word for a companion or study partner, which sharpens the irony. - **FNV** drops "Friend" entirely. - **AMP:** "speechless (muzzled, gagged)," which confirms φιμόω's literal sense. **v. 13, the outer darkness** - **NMV:** "cast him to the lower most and lowest hell." The strongest rendering in the set; it converts Matthew's "outer darkness" (outside the lit hall) into a fixed place of punishment. - **CJB:** "throw him outside in the dark!" The most physical: outside the house, at night. - **TOJB2011:** "the outer choshech"; **FNV:** "Bind him with leather straps… to weep and grind his teeth in anger." FNV reads the teeth-gnashing as anger, not grief. - **TPT:** "great sorrow, with weeping and grinding of teeth." **v. 14, called and chosen** - **NRSVue, NASB1995, NMV:** "many are called, but few are chosen." - **CJB:** "many are invited, but few are chosen"; **AMP:** "called (invited and summoned)." - **TOJB2011:** "the invited ones are many, but the nivcharim (chosen ones) are few." - **FNV:** "many are invited, but few accept his invitation." This makes choosing the guests' act, not the king's. - **TPT:** "everyone is invited to enter in, but few respond in excellence." "Everyone" for πολλοί matches Jeremias's argument that "many" can mean "all." "Respond in excellence" is interpretation, not translation. - **JANT note:** not everyone will be saved, citing 4 Ezra 8:3 and b. Menachot 29b ("the righteous of the world are few"). **Observation:** The translations split into two families on the garment. Formal translations (NRSVue, NASB1995, CJB, TOJB2011) leave it undefined. Paraphrases (TPT, FNV) define it as a gift the host provided, which turns the man's failure into refusing a gift. That reading is theologically attractive and widely preached, but it is an interpretation the Greek does not state. ###### ✍️ Phase 3: Literary and Contextual Analysis 🧵 Literary devices: - Opening formula: ὡμοιώθη ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν, "the kingdom of heaven has become like" (aorist passive), the same formula as 13:24 and 18:23. - Escalation: two invitations, then indifference, then murder, then war. - Narrative absurdity: an army burns a city while the oxen stay hot (vv. 4, 7). The break in realism signals allegory. - Ironic address: "Friend" (v. 12) carries reproach, as in 20:13 and 26:50. - Stock judgment phrase: "outer darkness… weeping and gnashing of teeth" (v. 13), a Matthean refrain (8:12; 13:42, 50; 24:51; 25:30). - Aphoristic close: a proverb that interprets the whole (v. 14). 🧱 Genre and implications: A parable with strong allegorical features. Most critical scholars see two units. Verses 1–10 share a source with Luke 14:15–24 (the "Q" hypothesis). Verses 11–13 resemble a separate parable, possibly once independent (Joachim Jeremias, *The Parables of Jesus*, rev. 1963). Implication: the open-door story and the garment story may have circulated separately. Matthew joined them, so the open door and the standard are meant to be read together. 🗺️ Historical-cultural context: - **Wedding feasts** lasted days (Judges 14:12; Tobit 8:20). The ἄριστον of v. 4 is the opening meal. Refusing a confirmed invitation shamed the host publicly. - **A double invitation** (first notice, then "everything is ready") was ordinary practice. - **Festal clothing.** A guest was expected to arrive in clean, festive dress (Ecclesiastes 9:8, "let your garments always be white"). The popular claim that the host handed out robes rests on thin evidence (2 Kings 10:22; Genesis 45:22). Ulrich Luz (*Matthew 21–28*, Hermeneia, 2005) and W. D. Davies and Dale Allison (*Matthew*, ICC, vol. 3, 1997) both doubt it. TPT and FNV nonetheless write it into the text (see Translation Comparison). - **The end-time feast.** JANT cites Exodus Rabbah 25:8, which pictures a table set in the Garden of Eden, alongside Isaiah 25:6, as the Jewish background for a wedding banquet that stands for the age to come. - **The burned city (v. 7)** is read by most scholars as an allusion to Jerusalem's destruction in 70 CE, and so as evidence for a post-70 date for Matthew. Others note that burning a rebel city is a stock motif (Judges 1:8; Isaiah 5:24–25) and need not look back on 70. 🔗 Canonical connections: - God's feast for all peoples (today's complementary first reading): ![[Isaiah 25#6]] ![[Isaiah 25#7]] - A table set in the presence of enemies (today's psalm and Call to Worship): ![[Psalms 23#5]] - A feast with guests judged by their clothing: ![[Zephaniah 1#7]] ![[Zephaniah 1#8]] - Wisdom sends servants to invite the simple: ![[Proverbs 9#3]] ![[Proverbs 9#5]] - Garments of salvation: ![[Isaiah 61#10]] - Filthy clothes replaced by festal robes: ![[Zechariah 3#4]] - The marriage supper of the Lamb; fine linen as righteous deeds: ![[Revelation 19#8]] ![[Revelation 19#9]] - Many from east and west at Abraham's table; heirs in outer darkness: ![[Matthew 8#11]] ![[Matthew 8#12]] - The kingdom given to a people producing fruit: ![[Matthew 21#43]] - Luke's version names the poor, crippled, blind, and lame: ![[Luke 14#21]] - Clothed with love: ![[Colossians 3#12]] ![[Colossians 3#14]] 🗣️ Rhetoric and tone: The voice is polemical and urgent. Jesus addresses leaders who have just challenged his authority, and the parable tells them their refusal will not stop the feast. The second half turns the warning on anyone who accepts the invitation without changing. The story offers comfort to outsiders and warning to insiders, and then to everyone. **🏺 Ancient Parallels** **1. Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 153a: the king's banquet and the soiled garments.** Rabban Yoḥanan ben Zakkai tells of a king who invited his servants to a feast without naming the hour. The wise dressed and waited at the palace door; the foolish went about their work. When the king called suddenly, the wise entered adorned and the foolish entered dirty. The adorned sat and ate; the others stood and watched. The parable illustrates Rabbi Eliezer's teaching to "repent one day before your death," that is, every day, and cites Ecclesiastes 9:8. Bearing: the garment as readiness through repentance is a Jewish reading already in the tradition. The Talmud is later than Matthew, so it shows a shared image, not a source. > 🔧 **Free Tool Note:** Read Shabbat 153a in Hebrew and English. https://www.sefaria.org/Shabbat.153a **2. Gospel of Thomas 64: the excuses.** A man prepares a dinner; four guests decline, one to collect debts from merchants and one to buy a house. The servant brings in whoever he finds. The saying ends that buyers and merchants will not enter the places of the Father. Bearing: Thomas aims the story at commerce, Luke at the poor and disabled, Matthew at Israel's leaders and the church's own members. **3. Rule of the Congregation, Qumran (1QSa II 3–22): who sits at the messianic meal.** The rule bars people with physical impairments, including the blind, the lame, and the deaf, from the assembly, then describes the meal the Messiah will share with that assembly. Bearing: a Jewish banquet text that excludes disabled bodies sits behind Luke 14:21 by contrast. On Access Sunday, it shows what Luke's list reverses, and what Matthew's version does not mention. ###### 🏛️ Phase 3.5: Historical Hermeneutical Audit **How the 8 Interpretive Traditions Approach Matthew 22:1–14** **1. Alexandrian Allegorical `[ALEX]`** - **Emphasizes:** the feast as union of the Word with the soul or the church; the garment as the soul's virtue. Origen's *Commentary on Matthew* (book 17) reads the parable at several levels. - **Downplays:** the polemical setting in the temple. - **How power functions:** the trained interpreter decides what the garment is. **2. Antiochene Literal-Historical `[ANT]`** - **Emphasizes:** the story's plain sequence: Israel's leaders invited through the prophets, the city's fall, the Gentile mission. John Chrysostom's homilies on Matthew (Homily 69) read it this way. - **Downplays:** spiritualized readings of the garment. - **How power functions:** history becomes the key. The risk is turning "the Jews" into the refusing guests without remainder. **3. Augustinian/Medieval Synthesis `[AUG]`** - **Emphasizes:** the full hall of "bad and good" as the mixed church (*corpus permixtum*), used against the Donatists; the garment as love. Augustine's Sermon 90 names it charity "from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith" (1 Timothy 1:5). Gregory the Great (*Homilies on the Gospels* 38) agrees. - **Downplays:** the open-door urgency of v. 9. - **How power functions:** the church contains sinners and saints until the king sorts them; clergy guard the sacraments that clothe. **4. Reformation Sola Scriptura `[REF]`** - **Emphasizes:** the invitation as pure grace; the garment as faith or Christ's righteousness given, not earned. Luther preached the text as the gospel for the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity. Calvin's *Harmony of the Evangelists* declines to choose between faith and holy life, since he holds the two inseparable. - **Downplays:** the reading of the garment as deeds. - **How power functions:** authority moves to the preached word; the danger is a cheap invitation with no garment at all. **5. Wesleyan Quadrilateral `[WES]`** - **Emphasizes:** the garment as holiness of heart and life. John Wesley's late sermon "On the Wedding Garment" (Sermon 127, 1790) argues this against readings that make it imputed righteousness alone, citing Hebrews 12:14. - **Downplays:** unconditional election readings of v. 14. - **How power functions:** holiness is testified in community; the risk is measuring others' garments. **6. Historical-Critical `[HC]`** - **Emphasizes:** Matthew's redaction of a shared parable (compare Luke 14); v. 7 as a post-70 addition; vv. 11–13 as a once-separate parable; v. 14 as an attached saying. - **Downplays:** the theological claims of the final text. - **How power functions:** the academy dates and dissects; the method also exposes how v. 7 has fed anti-Jewish readings. **7. Liberation/Post-Colonial `[LIB]`** - **Emphasizes:** the street guests gathered from the city's exits (v. 9); refusal by landowners and merchants (v. 5); a violent king who looks like Herod or Rome. Warren Carter (*Matthew and the Margins*, 2000) reads Matthew against Roman imperial power. Luise Schottroff (*The Parables of Jesus*, 2006) resists equating the king with God. - **Downplays:** the garment test, which can feel like a respectability gate. - **How power functions:** the reading sides with the poor guests; its risk is dropping the warning to insiders that Matthew aims at the church itself. **8. NAR/Restorationist `[NAR]`** - **Emphasizes:** **Inference:** "the bride making herself ready" (Revelation 19:7) imported into v. 11; the garment as a mature, end-time remnant; "few are chosen" as an elite company. - **Downplays:** the parable's open door (v. 9) and Matthew's assignment of sorting to the king alone. - **How power functions:** leaders claim to identify who is properly clothed, which places them in the king's seat. Little purchase in the text itself. ###### 🕵️ Phase 4: Interpretive Inquiry 🧠 Guardrails: Ask and answer within textual evidence. Claims without a documented source are marked **Inference:**. **❓ Question 1: Who refuses, and who replaces them? Is this parable supersession (Israel replaced by Gentiles) or a critique of leaders?** > **Thesis:** In its setting, the parable targets "the chief priests and the Pharisees" (21:45), not the Jewish people. The refusers are elites with farms and businesses (v. 5); the replacements are whoever stands at the city's exits (v. 9), and Matthew never calls them Gentiles. Matthew 21:43 gives the kingdom to "a people producing its fruits," a phrase about fruit, not ethnicity. Later Christian readers turned the story into a charter for replacing Israel, and the burned city (v. 7) became their proof text. 📖 Textual evidence: - v. 5: the excuses are economic (ἀγρός, "farm"; ἐμπορία, "business"), which points to social class. - v. 9: διέξοδοι τῶν ὁδῶν, where roads leave the city, the margins of the same town. - v. 10: "both bad and good" are gathered, a moral mix, not an ethnic one. - 21:45: the leaders "realized that he was speaking about them." 🔤 Key language notes: ἔθνος in 21:43 is singular, "a nation/people," not the plural τὰ ἔθνη ("the Gentiles"). Amy-Jill Levine (*The Social and Ethnic Dimensions of Matthean Salvation History*, 1988) argues Matthew's main division is social (elite vs. marginal), not Jew vs. Gentile. Anthony Saldarini (*Matthew's Christian-Jewish Community*, 1994) reads the Gospel as an intra-Jewish dispute. 🧪 Application: - **Personal:** Notice the excuse you reach for most: field or business. Indifference (ἀμελήσαντες) is the first refusal, before any hostility. - **Community/Church:** Preach this text without casting "the Jews" as the refusers. Name the elites in the story as people with power, which today often means churches like ours. - **Civic/Public:** Ask who stands at the exits of Chambersburg, and whether our invitations reach them. **❓ Question 2: What is the wedding garment?** > **Thesis:** Matthew never says. The interpretive history splits four ways: love (Augustine, Gregory), faith or Christ's righteousness (Luther, Reformed readings), holiness of life (Irenaeus, Wesley), and readiness through repentance (Shabbat 153a). Within Matthew, the strongest candidate is the "righteousness that exceeds" (5:20) shown in deeds (7:21; 25:31–46). Every guest got in free; the garment marks someone who came in and stayed unchanged. 📖 Textual evidence: - v. 10: the hall fills with "bad and good," so moral status did not gate entry. - v. 12: "How did you get in here?" asks about the guest's state, not his eligibility. - v. 12: he is "speechless," with no excuse to offer, which implies he could have dressed. - Translations: TPT ("the wedding robe provided for him") and FNV ("the outfit provided for you") make the garment a gift he refused. NRSVue, NASB1995, CJB, and TOJB2011 leave it undefined. JANT reads it as righteous deeds. 🔤 Key language notes: ἔνδυμα in Matthew marks identity shown outwardly: John's prophetic camel hair (3:4), false prophets in "sheep's clothing" (7:15), the angel's white raiment (28:3). Irenaeus (*Against Heresies* 4.36.6) says the called must be adorned with works of righteousness. Wesley's Sermon 127 calls the garment holiness. Colossians 3:12–14 ("clothe yourselves… above all, clothe yourselves with love") supports Augustine. 🧪 Application: - **Personal:** Ask what you are "wearing" to the table: resentment carried in from the street, or the love Colossians 3:14 names. - **Community/Church:** The garment cannot be a dress code, a body type, or a level of ability. Every guest entered as they were; the test concerns response to grace, not appearance. - **Civic/Public:** Watch for "garment" language used to police the poor, disabled, or queer people at church doors. That reverses the order of the story, where entry comes first. **❓ Question 3: Is the violent king God?** > **Thesis:** The parable's frame compares the kingdom to the whole story, not God to the king in every detail. Matthew's king acts like a first-century ruler: he takes insult personally, wages war, and expels a guest. Most of the tradition equated the king with God and the son with Jesus. Readers like Schottroff hold that Jesus told stories about violent kings to contrast them with God's reign. The text supports reading the king as God in his judgment, but warns against borrowing his methods: only the king judges, and his slaves are sent only to invite. 📖 Textual evidence: - v. 2: ὡμοιώθη compares the kingdom to the event as a whole. - v. 7: the army and the burned city, an absurd delay that marks allegory. - v. 13: διάκονοι, not the inviting δοῦλοι, carry out the expulsion. 🔤 Key language notes: ὠργίσθη ("was enraged," v. 7) appears again of the master in 18:34, another parable where a king's harshness is tied to the warning "so my heavenly Father will also do" (18:35). Matthew is willing to compare God to a severe king; he does not authorize human violence in God's name. 🧪 Application: - **Personal:** Hold judgment and invitation together without collapsing God into either. - **Community/Church:** No one in a congregation is assigned the king's role of inspecting garments. - **Civic/Public:** Reject any use of v. 7 to justify burning, war, or punishment "on God's behalf." **❓ Question 4 (Access Sunday): Matthew says "bad and good"; Luke says "poor, crippled, blind, and lame." Who belongs at this table, and what does "few are chosen" mean?** > **Thesis:** Luke's guest list reverses exclusion texts like 1QSa II, which barred disabled bodies from the messianic meal. Matthew keeps the open door but replaces Luke's list with a moral mix. On Access Sunday, the two versions together say that bodies never disqualified anyone, and that Matthew's warning concerns response, not wholeness. "Many are called, but few are chosen" works as a Semitic warning (compare 4 Ezra 8:3), not a quota. Jeremias noted that "many" in Semitic idiom can mean "all," so the line can read "all are called; the chosen are those who respond." 📖 Textual evidence: - Luke 14:21: the servant brings in "the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame." - Matthew 22:10: "both bad and good," so the hall fills. - Matthew 22:14: κλητοί includes everyone in the story; ἐκλεκτοί echoes 24:22, 24, 31, where the "elect" are those who endure. - Translations: TPT ("everyone is invited") reads πολλοί as "all." FNV ("few accept his invitation") makes choosing the guests' response. JANT reads the verse as "not everyone will be saved," citing 4 Ezra 8:3 and b. Menachot 29b. 🔤 Key language notes: Leviticus 21:17–23 barred priests "with a blemish" from offering. 1QSa II applied similar bars to the end-time meal. Nancy Eiesland (*The Disabled God*, 1994) and Amos Yong (*The Bible, Disability, and the Church*, 2011) read Luke's banquet as God reversing those bars. Today's liturgy says the same thing in its own words: "Nothing holy, forgotten, or left out." 🧪 Application: - **Personal:** Separate "garment" from "body" in your own self-talk; one is response, the other is how God made you. - **Community/Church:** Audit the actual table: ramps, seating, large print, sensory-friendly options, communion access. An open invitation means little if the hall cannot be entered. - **Civic/Public:** Use the CROP Hunger Walk and the Reentry Coalition drives as direct practice of verse 9. **🗺️ Schools of Thought: How Each Reads the Parable** **✡️ Jewish traditions** - 📖 **Rabbinic:** Shabbat 153a uses the same king, banquet, and soiled-garment image to teach daily repentance (Ecclesiastes 9:8). Ecclesiastes Rabbah 9:8 retells it. A rabbinic reader would hear the garment as *teshuvah* (repentance), just after the Days of Awe on this year's calendar. - 📜 **Karaite:** **Inference:** a plain-sense reader would go straight to Zephaniah 1:7–8 and Isaiah 25:6, where God's feast and judgment on improper attire are already in Scripture. - 🕯️ **Kabbalistic/Hasidic:** the Zohar teaches that the soul's garments are woven from mitzvot done in this life and worn in the world to come. The guest without a garment arrived without deeds. - 🏛️ **Modern academic:** Jewish scholars warn that v. 7 has been read as God's verdict on the Jewish people for centuries, and ask Christians to read the parable as an internal dispute about leadership. - 🌿 **Messianic:** **Inference:** they would read the first invitation to Israel as never revoked (Romans 11:29) and the street guests as added, not substituted. - 🧱 **Qumran:** the messianic meal of 1QSa II excluded disabled bodies; Luke's version reverses it, and Matthew's open door bypasses it. **✝️ Christian schools** - 🕰️ **Preterist:** v. 7 was fulfilled in 70 CE; the parable describes the transfer of the covenant community within that generation. - 📜 **Historicist:** the invitations map onto church history: prophets, apostles, the Gentile mission, and the long mixed age. - 🗺️ **Futurist/Dispensationalist:** the kingdom was offered to Israel and refused, then postponed; the church age is the street invitation; the garment is imputed righteousness checked at the marriage supper of Revelation 19. - 🧭 **Progressive Dispensationalist:** Gentiles join Israel's feast without replacing Israel; the refusal is by leaders, not a whole people. - 🌀 **Idealist:** a timeless pattern of grace offered, ignored, accepted, and lived out. - 🏛️ **Critical-Historical:** Matthew allegorized a simpler parable (closer to Luke and Thomas), added v. 7 after 70, and joined the garment parable to keep a mixed church accountable. - ✊ **Liberationist:** the feast belongs to the people at the city's exits; elites miss it through attachment to property and profit. Some refuse to equate the violent king with God. - ⛪ **Patristic/Medieval/Orthodox:** the mixed church awaits sorting; the garment is love or baptismal grace. The Orthodox reading of this Gospel sits behind the Bridegroom Matins hymn of Holy Week: "I see your bridal chamber adorned, O my Savior, but I have no garment to enter." - 💨 **Pentecostal/Charismatic:** urgency evangelism ("go into the highways and hedges," Luke 14:23 KJV) and the garment as a Spirit-filled, holy life ready for the marriage supper. - 🌈 **Progressive/UCC:** "No matter who you are or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here" maps onto v. 9; the garment is read as love and justice in practice, never as conformity. - ♿ **Disability theology:** reads Matthew through Luke 14:21; refuses any reading that ties the garment to bodily wholeness, and asks whether the hall is physically open. **☪️ Islamic and other faiths** - 🕌 **Islamic:** Qur'an 7:26 says God sent clothing to cover and adorn, "but the garment of righteousness (*libās al-taqwā*), that is best," the closest parallel to the wedding garment. Surah 5 (al-Mā'ida, "The Table Spread," 5:112–115) has Jesus' disciples ask for a feast from heaven, granted with a warning to those who disbelieve afterward. - 🌍 **Other traditions:** Hindu and Sikh langar practice (free communal meal open to all, seated on the same floor) offers a lived image of v. 10's full hall without rank. **⚠️ Readings to discern** - 🔥 **Anti-Jewish supersession:** v. 7 as God's destruction of "the Jews." 🚩 It contradicts 21:45 and has fed real violence. - 👔 **Respectability gatekeeping:** the garment as dress code, sobriety test, or "fixing" yourself before church. 🚩 It reverses the order of the story. - 🏔️ **Remnant elitism (NAR, Manifest Sons):** "few are chosen" as a spiritual elite. 🚩 It gives leaders the king's role. - 💰 **Prosperity:** "the king provides the robe" as a promise of wealth. 🚩 The guests are invited, not paid. ###### 🧬 Phase 4 Coda: Hermeneutical Genealogy - **Dominant traditions:** `[AUG]` (the mixed church and love as garment) and `[REF]` (grace and imputed righteousness) shape most preaching; `[HC]` shapes the commentaries. - **Suppressed readings:** the Jewish garment-as-repentance reading (Shabbat 153a); disability readings that set Matthew beside Luke 14:21 and 1QSa; the Liberation refusal to equate the king with God. - **Genealogical surprise:** Augustine (love), Irenaeus (works), and Wesley (holiness) agree against a faith-only reading, while Calvin refuses to choose. - **Power analysis:** whoever defines the garment controls the table. The text gives that power to the king alone. - **For the student:** If your first reading of v. 11 was "he didn't belong," ask which tradition taught you to read the garment as eligibility rather than response. ###### 🧮 Central Meaning and Implications 🎯 Main point: God's feast is ready and will be full. Those with standing who ignore the invitation lose their place; everyone else is gathered in. Accepting the invitation means letting it change you, and the judgment belongs to the host alone. 👂 Original hearers: Temple leaders hear that their refusal will not stop the feast. Matthew's mixed community of Jews and Gentiles, after 70, hears both comfort (they were gathered) and warning (they must wear the garment). 🏙️ Implications for today: - Personal: Indifference is the first refusal; love is the garment. - Congregational: An open invitation needs an accessible hall and a church that does not inspect guests. - Civic: The feast is set at the city's exits: reentry, hunger, disability, and Pride all sit on this week's calendar. ###### 🧪 Phase 5: Application Plan 🧘 Meditate on: Verse 9, "Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find." 🎯 Goal: Invite one person this week who is outside the usual circle, and check one access barrier at St. John's (seating, signage, print size, sound, or the communion route). 📍 Logistics: Walk the building before or after worship on October 18 with the access question in mind; write down what you find. 🤝 Accountability: Share the barrier note with the worship team or deacon in charge. 🙏 Promises claimed: [[Isaiah 25#6]], [[Psalms 23#5]], [[Matthew 22#4]], [[Matthew 22#10]] ###### 🧷 Phase 6: Concluding Reflection 🕯️ Closing prayer: _"Host of the feast, you set the table before we arrive and you fill the hall with people the world passes over. Keep me from the excuse of field and business. Clothe me in love, and open the doors of our church so wide that no one waits outside. Amen."_ ###### 🧠 Logical Fallacy and Bias Audit 🗓️ Presentism: reading v. 7 as a modern war or v. 11 as a modern dress code. 🎯 Confirmation bias: quoting v. 9 for welcome and skipping vv. 11–13, or quoting v. 14 for exclusion and skipping v. 10. 🔄 Eisegesis: importing a host-supplied robe custom the evidence barely supports, as TPT and FNV do in vv. 11–12, or a bride (TPT, v. 4) the parable never mentions. 🌈 Over-allegorization: assigning every detail a referent (oxen, farms, the army) until the story disappears. 🧬 Genetic fallacy: dismissing the garment test because vv. 11–13 may once have been a separate parable. ⚖️ False equivalence: equating the king's judgment with a congregation's right to judge guests. 🧑‍⚖️ Hasty generalization: from "the leaders refused" (21:45) to "the Jews refused." ⚔️ False dichotomy: grace vs. response; open door vs. standard. Matthew holds both. 🎭 Composition fallacy: treating every detail of the king's behavior as a claim about God's character. 🧱 Ableist conflation: reading "unworthy" (v. 8) or "without a garment" (v. 11) as bodily deficiency, which the text never does. 📏 Moving the goalposts: treating the garment as whatever standard a church currently enforces. 🧲 Motivated reasoning: claiming the street-guest role for ourselves while acting like the farm-and-business guests. ###### 🌍 Implications and Further Research 🔬 Compare the three versions (Matthew 22, Luke 14, Thomas 64) in a synopsis; Luz (Hermeneia) and Davies and Allison (ICC) give the redaction arguments. 🏺 Read 1QSa II alongside Luke 14 and Leviticus 21 for a disability-focused session. 🧭 Reception: Wesley's Sermon 127; Augustine's Sermon 90; the Bridegroom Matins hymn. ⚖️ Ethics: how v. 7 functioned in Christian anti-Judaism, and how to preach it responsibly. 🕯️ Liturgical: RCL Proper 23, Year A, pairs this Gospel with Isaiah 25:1–9 and Psalm 23 (the feast and the table). ###### 🗂️ Discussion Questions 🧠 What surprised you about the "Friend" address in v. 12? 🧭 Which excuse in v. 5 sounds most like your week? ♿ Luke names disabled guests and Matthew does not. What changes when you read them together? ⚖️ If the garment is love, how does a church practice that without inspecting anyone? 🌱 What one barrier could St. John's remove before next Access Sunday? ### Response #### Apostles' Creed: An Affirmation of Faith — [53:56](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=3236s) *Hymnal Companion C-10* I believe in God, the Father, the Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate; He was crucified, died and was buried. He went to the dead. On the third day He rose again, entered into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life eternal. Amen. *Note: This is the ELLC ecumenical wording ("He went to the dead" in place of "He descended into hell").* ##### Nicene Creed (printed in the insert, not used today) We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen. We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father; Through Him all things were made. For us and for our salvation He came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary and became truly human. For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate; He suffered death and was buried. On the third day He rose again in accordance with the scriptures; He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom will have no end. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. We believe in the one holy catholic and apostolic church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen. #### Sharing of Joys and Concerns — [55:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=3314s) Spoken concerns and joys run [55:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=3314s)–[1:03:41](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=3821s), ending with "Let us go to God in prayer." *For personal prayer use this week.* > [!info] Source > Spoken in the service, from the YouTube auto-captions. Names are as the captions spell them and may be garbled. The pastor restated each concern before "God, by your grace," and the people answered "hear our prayer." Not every detail is verified; check anything you plan to share against the video. - **Concern: Aaron, Pride Festival ([55:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=3314s)).** Lifted up the Franklin County Pride Festival, noon to 5 that day at the Wilson College outdoor venue. Prayer: that it goes safely despite the weather, and that "love and acceptance will be the order of the day." - **Concern: Courtney's father ([55:51](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=3351s)).** Ongoing update: he is approved and will be put on the list in about three and a half weeks for a double lung transplant. One or two more steps remain before he is actively listed. After that the wait for lungs "could take no time or it could take a long time." The pastor named Courtney's parents in the prayer ([56:26](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=3386s)). - **Concern: Virginia's middle child ([56:56](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=3416s)).** Virginia arrived late, straight from the hospital. Her middle child, 27, has had brain cancer for a couple of years and was admitted Thursday with a 102 fever while on chemo. Sepsis, but the organs are not affected. The source of the infection is not found. Meningitis is ruled out, and the viral panel was negative for flu and RSV. A lesion was found on the pancreas, and the oncologist may want a biopsy. Broad-spectrum antibiotics are working ("thank God for small miracles"). Likely to stay at Chambersburg, possibly transferring to Hershey within the week ([57:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=3470s)). The pastor's summary and prayer: [58:12](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=3492s)–[58:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=3520s). - **Joy: Lynn, flowers ([58:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=3520s)).** Thanked the choir director and the choir for the flowers they brought as she moves to a new home ([59:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=3571s)). - **Joy: Lloyd, Saturday potluck ([59:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=3571s)).** Last night's potluck supper with the other congregations that meet at St. John's: good attendance, plenty of food and fellowship, singing in two languages ([1:00:13](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=3613s)). The plan is several more over the year. He invited as many as possible to join the next Saturday-night potluck ([1:00:37](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=3637s)). - **Joy: homecoming king ([1:01:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=3677s)).** The pastor, taking "pastoral privilege," announced that Camden Wadel was crowned homecoming king the night before and thanked Camden and Colton for being in worship ([1:01:59](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=3719s)). - **Joy: Lisa, back results ([1:01:59](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=3719s)).** Thanked the congregation for prayers: the back doctor found the hardware all in place; the pain is muscles that need strengthening with PT and steroids. No surgery on the horizon. The pastor gave thanks for Dr. Troilani (spelling uncertain) and the power of prayer ([1:02:52](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=3772s)). - **Transition ([1:02:52](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=3772s)).** "Let us go to God in prayer" leads into the pastoral prayer ([1:03:41](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=3821s)). #### Prayers of the People and the Lord's Prayer (Debts) — [1:03:41](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=3821s) Pastoral prayer at [1:03:41](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=3821s); the Lord's Prayer begins at [1:04:59](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=3899s). Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen. #### Invitation to Giving — [1:04:59](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=3899s) #### Offertory — [1:05:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=3958s) #### \*Offertory Response #706 — [1:08:19](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=4099s) "Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow" - **Words:** Thomas Ken, 1674 (public domain); sing as printed in the hymnal, since UCC hymnals vary the wording - **Tune:** OLD HUNDREDTH, attributed to Louis Bourgeois, 1551 #### \*Prayer of Dedication — [1:08:19](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=4099s) *Written by Rev. Jacob Nault (unison)* God who loves us exactly as we are, thank you for this opportunity to celebrate the gifts of our disabled siblings. With these gifts of time, talent, treasure, and prayer, help us work with you to create a world where all your people can belong, and find peace in your presence. We pray this in the name of Jesus, who offers hope and liberation for all. Amen. ### Sending #### \*Hymn #495 (insert) — [1:09:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=4175s) "Called as Partners in Christ's Service" - **Words:** Jane Parker Huber, 1981 — lyrics not reproduced; see the insert or hymnal - **Music:** John Zundel, 1855 - **Tune:** BEECHER 8.7.8.7.D - **Section:** Discipleship - **Scripture basis:** [[John 15#12]] · [[Galatians 6#2]] · [[Ephesians 2#14]] - **Hymnal note:** One of Huber's most widely sung texts, written for a women's breakfast at the 1981 Presbyterian General Assembly to celebrate the partnership of women and men in the church's service. #### \*Commission & Benediction — [1:13:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=4388s) *Written by Rev. Dr. JJ Flag* Friends, as we leave this place, we leave to do THE work. The work of welcome, the work of inclusion; the work of journeying alongside each other; the work of meeting needs when and where we can; the work of resting; the work restoring those cast aside back to community; the work of setting tables and making sure that spaces at those tables are accessible to ALL; the work of making the road ahead a little easier to travel; the work of resting. Accompanied by grace and mercy, we have been called to and equipped for this work. May we do it with joy. **Amen.** Sung response heard in the captions at [1:13:42](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=4422s) ("Walk gently in the way… Rejoice and serve and praise"). #### Postlude (seated) — [1:14:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=4458s) <!-- Postlude boundary: captions show only [music] after the sung response, so 1:14:18 is the block that holds both; the instrumental postlude probably starts near 1:15:30. --> *Join us for a time of fellowship following the service!* ## Scripture and Sermon ### Scripture Reading — [25:39](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=1539s) Matthew 22:1-14 ![[Matthew 22#1]] ![[Matthew 22#2]] ![[Matthew 22#3]] ![[Matthew 22#4]] ![[Matthew 22#5]] ![[Matthew 22#6]] ![[Matthew 22#7]] ![[Matthew 22#8]] ![[Matthew 22#9]] ![[Matthew 22#10]] ![[Matthew 22#11]] ![[Matthew 22#12]] ![[Matthew 22#13]] ![[Matthew 22#14]] ### Additional Scripture Other Proper 23 readings, not read in today's service: [[Isaiah 25#6]] · [[Psalms 23#5]] · [[Philippians 4#4]] · [[Exodus 32#1]] ### Sermon — [41:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=2480s) *Today's Time of Testimony took the sermon slot; the Bible study sits under Order of Worship › Time of Testimony.* #### Personal Reflections ##### What spoke to me: - ##### Questions raised: - ##### Challenges/Convictions: - ##### Liturgical Context Reflections: - #### Applications ##### This week I will: - [ ] ##### People to pray for: - ##### Follow-up study: - [ ] #### Connections - ## Worship Leadership | Role | Name | | ---- | ---- | | Pastor | Rev. Caroline E. Saxton | | Organist | Barbara Motichka | | Choir Director | Gary Crum | | Deacon in Charge | Susan Collier | | Lector | Holli Burton | | Children's Message | Roxanne Davenport | | Children's Corner | MaryLee Yaukey | | Media Coordinators | Chris Willman-Bunge and Neath Ham | | Bulletin Cover | Edd Scheer | - **Bulletin cover:** a hand-drawn church with a glowing yellow doorway and a figure reaching out to a line of people, one using a wheelchair, along a path lettered "ALL ARE WELCOME HERE." - **Worship resources:** UCC Disabilities Ministry, Access Sunday 2026. - **Flowers at the Foot of the Cross:** given in loving memory of Karl Pound and of Claire and "Os" Pound and Rachel and Jacob Hoffeditz, by Lynda Pound. - **Birthdays this week:** 10/12 Scot Orndorff; 10/14 H. Mark Bard, Peggy Bryner, Rhonda Neff, and Wayne Scubelek; 10/16 Barbara Aveni, Mike Hoffeditz, Tena Keeney, and Rev. Bob Macfarlane; 10/18 Sarah Myers. ## Church News & Announcements ### Staff and Contacts - **The Rev. Caroline E. Saxton,** Pastor — [email protected] · (641) 260-1868 (cell) - **Tonya Schwartz,** Office Administrator — [email protected] · (717) 263-8593 (office) - **Gary Crum,** Music Director - **Barbara Motichka,** Organist - **Roxanne Davenport,** Director of Children & Youth - **The Rev. Stephen W. Hoffman,** Pastor Emeritus ### Announcements — [11:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=674s) - **Habitat for Humanity Book Sale:** October 23, 24, and 25. Spoken at [11:58](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=718s)–[12:46](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=766s): volunteers needed to set up and to staff the sale nights (an early-sale Thursday evening for 50 ticket holders was added this year), seven yard signs left in the office, and about 60,000 books, DVDs and CDs to sell. Setup begins Monday, October 19. Sign-up sheet at the Welcome Center. - **Monday Afternoon Book Study:** Chapter 9 of Barbara Brown Taylor's *Learning to Walk in the Dark*, Monday, October 12, 1:30 PM, Conference Room 111. - **Immunization Clinic:** Chambers Apothecary flu shots, Sunday, October 18, after worship in the Parlor. Sign up in the Lobby Welcome Center by October 16. Questions: Harold Collier, [email protected]. - **CROP Hunger Walk:** Spoken at [13:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=797s)–[14:07](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=847s) (youth walkers, online giving under "St. John's youth, Chambersburg walk", checks to St. John's with "crop" in the memo). Sunday, October 18, at Falling Spring Presbyterian Church (221 N. Main Street). Registration opens 1:30 PM; walk begins at 2. Money and non-perishable food donations welcome. - **No Tricks, Just Treats:** Spoken at [11:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=700s): collecting candy; the event sets up at the labyrinth and draws roughly 400 children. Saturday, October 31, 6–8 PM. Drop candy donations at the church office. - **St. John's Pumpkin Patch Tea:** thanks to the set-up team, prep workers, kitchen help, waiters, dishwashers, clean-up crew, and tablecloth washers; to Pastor Caroline; and to Tonya for ticket sales and the table chart. Spring "Vintage Tea" is Saturday, April 24, 2027. - **October is Pastor Appreciation Month:** write a note on a pre-cut leaf at the Welcome Center and pin it to the Tree of Appreciation. Cards and gifts can go to the church office; they'll be presented during worship on Sunday, October 18. - **Sunday Night Bible Study:** 1 Peter 1 with Pastor Caroline, Sunday, October 18, 8 PM on Zoom (Meeting ID 836 0593 5961, passcode 277938; link in the e-blast). - **Fall Quarter First Fruits (August–October):** Franklin Together–Franklin County Reentry Coalition, Homeless Matters of Franklin County, and the Fayetteville Fire Department. Details in the Spirit. - **Franklin Together–Franklin County Reentry Coalition:** collecting household, cleaning, and hygiene items for people securing housing and reconnecting with family. Item list in the e-blast; donation box at the Welcome Center. - **Bible and a Beer:** third Monday of each month, 6:30 PM, Trojan Diner. Next gathering October 19. ### CROP Hunger Walk Insert — [13:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWDhl5bEjSs&t=797s) - **Team:** St. John's UCC Youth, 2026 Chambersburg CROP Hunger Walk - **Theme:** "Building Global Resilience"; walking as an act of solidarity with neighbors who walk for water, food, medical care, or safety - **What gifts do:** $21 buys five chickens for a family in Tanzania; $25, a month of groceries for a refugee in Egypt; $43, a biosand water filter for a family in Myanmar; $40, a year of school supplies for a Roma child in Eastern Europe - **Info:** 888-CWS-CROP · [crophungerwalk.org](https://www.crophungerwalk.org) ## Vision & Mission **St. John's Vision:** We are called to love, to learn, to worship and to witness in Christ as a congregation that welcomes everyone, and seeks service that will advance God's realm on earth. **St. John's Mission:** To grow in love of God and neighbor ## Calendar & Upcoming Events ### Today, Sunday, October 11 - 12:00 PM — Franklin County Pride Festival, Wilson College - No Bible Study; resumes October 18 ### Monday, October 12 - 1:30 PM — Book Study (*Learning to Walk in the Dark*, Chapter 9) — Conference Room 111 - 7:00 PM — Boy Scouts — Fellowship Hall ### Tuesday, October 13 - 5:30 PM — Yoga — Room 202 - 6:00 PM — Ladies Bible Study via Zoom - 6:30 PM — Cub Scouts — Fellowship Hall, then smaller groups ### Wednesday, October 14 - 11:30 AM — Ladies Luncheon — Hoss's Steak and Sea House ### Thursday, October 15 - 6:00 PM — Dance Class — Fellowship Hall - 6:00 PM — Girl Scouts — Room 203 - 6:00 PM — Bell Choir Practice — Room 117 - 7:15 PM — Choir Practice — Room 103 ### Sunday, October 18 - 8:45 AM — Godly Play Church School (Ages 3–K) — Room 119 - 8:45 AM — SPARK! Church School (Grades 1–5) — Room 115 - 8:45 AM — Scripture/Contemporary Issues (Grades 6–12) — Room 206 - 8:45 AM — Wired Word Adult Class — Library Room 106 - 8:45 AM — Upper Room Adult Class — Conference Room 111 - 10:00 AM — Sunday Worship (Pastor Appreciation celebration) — Sanctuary - 11:15 AM — Chambers Apothecary Immunizations — Parlor Room 104 - 2:00 PM — CROP Hunger Walk — Falling Spring Presbyterian Church - 8:00 PM — Bible Study on 1 Peter 1 — Zoom ### Later - October 19 — Habitat Book Sale setup begins; Bible and a Beer, 6:30 PM, Trojan Diner - October 23–25 — Habitat for Humanity Book Sale - October 31 — No Tricks, Just Treats, 6–8 PM - April 24, 2027 — Spring "Vintage Tea"